Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what steps I can take to develop a daily sketchbook habit. As developing artists we all know we should practice every day.
I’m sure you know that is easier said than done. If you’re anything like me then you struggle with this question all the time.
So how we can rise to the challenge? What can we do to make sure we are drawing every single day?
This is certainly a subject worthy of a more official page on. However, after a bit of research on the subject, I figured I would make a quick post on some things we can do to meet our daily drawing goals!
Make A 5 Minute Commitment
One of the hardest things I find about trying to draw every day is just getting started.
To combat this issue we can set a very minimal commitment of drawing for 5 minutes. Some recommend an hour, some recommend 15, let’s just start with 5 minutes. We’re beginners. We just need to get some easy wins under the belt.
This can be accomplished no matter what is going on with your life or what comes up in your day.
Keep it simple and quick. You could do 5 minutes of quick sketch figure drawing. Maybe 5 minutes of linework by practicing doing circles or straight lines.
Draw whatever is on the desk or table in front of you. Heck, draw the table! Just get it done quick. If you do this every day you will find that most of the time you are exceeding the 5 minutes.
Figuring Out What To Draw
The next major issue I encounter when sitting down with my sketchbook to draw is figuring out what to draw.
Sometimes I know I need to work on hands, or faces or something specific. Even when I know this it is difficult for me to find an example of something I actually want to draw.
One thing I have been reading is to just draw what is right in front of you. This isn’t something I typically do so I’m definitely going to be giving this a try more often now.
I generally go to Pinterest to try and find something I might want to draw but this can be counterproductive. I usually end up spending more time scrolling and looking for stuff even though I have a whole heap of stuff saved already.
One thing we can try when looking for resource materials to use it to put a time limit on deciding on something. So if you are going to use Pinterest to find your inspiration set a 5-minute timer and make your decision by the time the clock runs out.
Another option is to create a project. Say you want to get better at drawing faces. Do a daily portrait for 30 days. Keep a collection of faces on Pinterest, choose one and start drawing.
You could also do things like draw only parts of the face. Draw the skull. Fill up a page in your sketchbook full of ears, noses or mouths. The smaller parts of the face should be accomplishable in our original 5 minute time frame.
There are tons of daily exercises out there to collect and try. There are daily prompt lists or daily drawing challenges you can find as well.
There is even a great app called Jazza’s Arty Games you can try that has a number of ways to get you going. I will try to cover and review this application in greater depth at a later date but it looks like an awesome tool to get to help with this issue.
I will definitely be buying it soon to try it out. Plus I love Jazza’s channel and don’t mind supporting what he does. He is one of my many inspirations. It’d be great to meet or interview him one day.
Using a Trigger
One tip I read that I like the idea of is using some sort of a trigger like when I have a cup of coffee, I will sit down and draw for 5 minutes. When I go on my lunch break I will do a quick sketch of something.
Pick something that you already do every day and try to attach the habit of drawing to it.
I personally like the idea of drawing with my morning cup of coffee myself. Maybe if I do it long enough it’ll become a craving for drawing in the same way I crave a cup of coffee in the morning.
These are the things I will be attempting to put to practice so that I myself can meet my daily drawing goals! It is certainly a subject I will be thinking much more about as I continue on my journey to become a great artist.
As I find better ways to accomplish a daily sketching habit I will be developing a much more in-depth page on this subject matter to better help us both reach our artistic goals!
If you give these steps a try and they work for you feel free to share your experience in the comments below! If you have your own tips and tricks you want to share in the comments I’d love to hear them myself!